On the Verandah
by OriginalMcFishie
Summary: A glimpse into life in the Glen, told through conversations on a verandah.
1. Would I be so plucky?

_**Quick Note: I'm loving so much of what I read on here at the moment, that I find myself often thinking about the characters long after I've read the chapter (it's possible that I'm just a little obsessed with AOGG fan fic!) This little vignette came on the back of Chapter 16 of Elizasky's Glen Notes (1907-1914). I was going to suggest it to her as a potential chapter when I realised it didn't fit with her timeline, so I wrote it myself, and thanks to Elizasky's encouragement have posted this peek into Gilbert's mind during the war...**_

"Is that Faith Meredith leaving?" Asked Gilbert as he met Anne on the verandah of Ingleside

"Yes, she was up here sharing her news from Jem. She didn't share _all_ the letter, I believe your son's letters are just as inappropriate for sharing as the ones you used to write me" Anne's eyes twinkled as she spoke, suggesting that she quite liked the inappropriateness of some of Gilbert's letters."It must give Jem so much strength, over there in the mud and horror" Anne continued "to know that he has Faith to come back to. All our young fry have been so plucky from the start of this War."

"I've been wondering" mused Gilbert "If I could have been so 'plucky'."

"Of course you would" Anne said quickly, somewhat shocked at Gilbert questioning himself and jumping to his defence "I'm sure the captain of the football team, leader of the Lambs and Coopers Prize winner would have had ample resources to draw on to face anything."

"But I didn't have you" he responded, turning her around to face him. "When I was Jem's age, we weren't together. We weren't even friends. People have made so much of my winning the Coopers, but honestly, I only studied that hard to stop thinking about you"

He pulled Anne into a hug as he spoke. "I think if War had come then," he continued "I'd probably have joined up just to escape,... but without you back here to keep me grounded,... I'm not sure I would have ever come through it."

Anne shuddered, thinking about how different their lives would have been if they'd been young now instead of then. "I'm sure I would have come to my senses if you were going off to fight", she said quietly into his chest.

Gilbert bought his hand up and lifted her chin to look into those grey eyes he loved so much, that were now full of tears as she contemplated what their lives could have been. He kissed her, not like a man who'd been married for almost a quarter of a century and had fathered 7 children, but with all the passion he felt back then, suddenly overcome with the thought of what it would have been like to face so much without Anne, not caring that they were on the verandah of Ingleside for all the Glen to see.


	2. Womb to Tomb

_I haven't forgotten about Fairytale Magic, but those two just aren't ready to move on from their kiss just yet, and this needed to be written tonight. With heartfelt thanks to those who dedicate their lives to making other's lives easier when it's needed most._

* * *

A lot of doctoring is waiting around, Gilbert reflected as he leant over the Alistair MacAllister's verandah balcony, sipping his lemonade, taking in the sweeping view. There was something surreal about standing on a verandah over the harbour, where his gaze usually looked to, and looking back on his side of the harbour, where his gaze usually came from. He could see the bustling fishing life of the harbour, the Glen and, if he squinted Ingleside where his wife and children would be eating their dinner without him. It felt as if he'd jumped into another world, but at times like this nothing felt quite real.

"I'm sorry doc" said Katie McAlaister, Alistair's second wife, a ruddy woman in her late thirties, looking more like fifty today with the strain of the last few weeks and the grief she felt. "You have your own family to be with on a summer's evening."

"There's no more important place for me to be here than with your Pamela" Gilbert said. "Anne would agree. I was the first person to welcome her to this world 15 years ago, and its right that if she has to leave us so soon, I'm there to see her leave for the next!"

"She's not in any pain," he continued reassuringly, "the delusions have passed. She's peaceful and will go in her own time,and I'll be here with you all the way. There's no rushing your Pamela, do you remember the night she was born? The wind was blowing a gale, and she wasn't coming out until the storm calmed."

Katie smiled. It felt comforting that this young doctor, not quite so young now, held all their comings and goings in his hand, like he was the cover on a book, keeping all that came in between together.

As he finished speaking, Gilbert saw his wife Anne, with their ten year old son Jem walking up the path, a basket in hand.

"We don't want to intrude, Mrs MacAllister" said Anne," but Susan and I thought if we sent up a beef stew , and some sandwiches you would have more time with your girl tonight."

"Mum?, Doc?," before Katie had a chance to thank Anne, Robbie, her youngest called out, "I think this is it."

Gilbert, without even a glance at Anne, took Katie's hand and they went back into the front room where Pamela was taking her last breath.

Out on the verandah, a curious Jem asked "Why does he do it Mum? Why does he stay where there is nothing more he can do?"

Anne answered in a quiet voice, as if she was praying "Because it's his privilege, his honour to help those who he brought into this world, to leave it. In some ways I think it's his favourite part of doctoring. Your father never likes to lose a patient, especially one so young, but if they have to go, he wants to be with them when they do. He always says its something quite beautiful to see a spirit leave a body and travel onto the next world."

An anguished cry from inside the house indicated that Robbie had been right and Pamela had drawn her last breath. A few minutes later, Gilbert came out rubbing his hands on a towel and walked towards his own family.

"Thank you for bringing the family supper Anne, you're always so thoughtful"

"We all play our part," Anne said with a smile. "You're a doctor, you bring knowledge and skill, I'm a doctor's wife, I bring food and comfort." Then, after a pause, "She's gone?"

"Yes, too soon, too young. You know she reminded me of Ruby Gillis in the end," he said referring to their childhood friend who had passed while still young "she had the same look on her face when she left, only this time it was typhoid not consumption."

He paused then continued. "Sometimes I wish I'd stayed at Redmond and worked on cures for things like typhoid. I wonder what our life would have been like if I'd done that. We certainly wouldn't be living here, maybe in Boston. I hear there is some remarkable work being done by a female doctor there, a Doctor Mary something*."

"You do what you can." Anne replied "And contribute in your own way. You share your experience with your old college at Redmond, and that goes into research to help those developing cures."

"Maybe, maybe. But sometimes I wish I could do more" Gilbert mused

"Perhaps I can Dad" interjected Jem, much impressed with the way his parents were speaking . "When I grow up I can be a doctor and help develop cures to save the Pamela's of this world."

"That would be wonderful, darling", smiled Anne. "can you imagine a world where there is a cure for all the cruel diseases". Anne's imagination sparked by the thought of a world free from the pain of early deaths from disease.

Katie and her husband Allistair came out to join them. Allistair grabbed Gilbert's hand and held it with some force. "Thank you Doctor," he said "You know I've never been much for modern doctoring, but what you did for our girl. Helping her through it, easing her pain when you could, holding her hand when you couldn't. Other doctors wouldn't have stayed, they'd have run back to their own comforts, but you, you never left her side, and I can never thank you enough."

Jem watched with amazement on his face as he saw this hard farming man, with tears running down his face, pay such respect to his father. Research was important, he thought, cures had to be found, but there was something infinitely noble in the work his father did. Caring with knowledge and skill, but also compassion and understanding, changing the lives of those around him just through his way of being. Perhaps he'd be a family doctor after all.

*Doctor Mary is from Elizasky's 'The Sun and Other Stars'. If you haven't read her work, you should. It's extraordinary


	3. A Literary Haunting

_The OED defines ghost as "an apparition of a dead person, which is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image", and this is typically what we think of when we think of a haunting. It also, however, offers a second definition of ghost, as "a slight trace or vestige of something". Pulling from this definition what if ghosts are not shadows of those who have passed, but of those we create? And if they were, just what would they think of how we've created their lives? This vignette takes place on the Ingleside verandah where we find one character feeling just a little petulant about how one writer portrays her..._

The day had been hot, ridiculously hot for October. The calendar, however, despite what the mercury was saying, said it was autumn, and was proved right once the sun set and the earth quickly cooled. Those who had lived in Four Winds for any length of time had the wood ready stacked in the fireplace to light as the last rays of sun disappeared into the sea and the mist began its slow creep from the harbour, up past the 'House of Dreams', through the village, past the school, Carter Flag's store and the Manse, up the hill where Ingleside sat, enveloping the gate, the walkway and the verandah, with an eerie glow as the light from the full moon shone through the mist.

As the mist settled, the figure of a young red haired woman in a blue nurses uniform began to clearly come into sight as she took a long slow drag on a cigarette and blew the smoke into the surrounding atmosphere.

"You know you were never on this verandah like this, and we can't really feel the cold" she said, addressing the tall, slim girl, "half-past sixteen," with serious gray eyes and hair that could only be called carrot coloured who stood next to her, shivering and pulling her shawl closer around as if to fight the fog that covered all of the Glen below.

"Besides", she continued "it's positively ridiculous that my mother is looking 'half past sixteen' while I'm looking almost 30 and...", she felt around her belly to confirm "...with child!" her voice was shocked but there was mirth behind it as if the situation greatly amused her.

"It's not my fault" rebuffed the girl beside her, "This is how She always pictures me". Her tone and attitude were that of the teenager she represented, though her next statement implied she had wisdom beyond those years, as she mused "I wonder if they know."

A dark haired gentleman, with grey in his curls hazel eyes and a roguish smile walked around the corner of the verandah and pulled her into his arms "I doubt it" He pauses to leave a lingering kiss on her forehead - it would never do to kiss someone looking so young on the lips "not everyone has your imagination Anne-Girl". As he pulled away she morphed from the schoolgirl to a woman of his own age, and pulled him back to kiss her properly. "Thank you" he murmured "not every man pictures themselves with a teenager, I've always preferred a more mature Anne, even if the some of the Creators don't."

"How does it work again Dad?" asked Rilla "Why are we here, like this, tonight?" she questioned looking down again at her WWI Nurses uniform.

"It's their imagination that keeps us alive" said Jem popping out to join them, trailing Faith behind him, her hand held firmly in his. "And once a year, on all Hallow's Eve, we are able to ponder our existence."

"We exist as the Creators write" continued his wife "which is why your mother her can be both the school girl and the mother of seven, why you are eternally pregnant, and why your brother Shirley only appears from time to time and has great big gaps where he can never appear"

"Well, not until someone writes me into being" smirked Shirley appearing out of the mist, his age wasn't at first apparent, but the uniform he was wearing was that of a WWII pilot so it was clear that he was in his forties.

"And we like how She wrote you, don't we?" said Carl. His arms were the first to appear, snaking around Shirley's waist from behind, but the rest of him soon followed, his hand reaching up to gently tilt Shirley's face towards him, enabling the planting of a long, loving, lingering kiss.

"I like what She creates" said Una quietly. Had she been in the corner the entire time, or was she just emerging from the mist no one could tell, no one could ever tell with Una, but when she spoke they listened. "She's certainly given me a rounder life, and at least there's a hope I'll get my own 'happy ever after'". As she spoke Faith leaned across and squeezed her sister's hand as if to say 'I really hope she brings you the love you deserve, happiness has eluded you long enough.'

"Hmmm" Anne was clearly not impressed "I do like the opportunities she's created for you Una dear, and we all like to see more of Shirley, but what this Sky-Creator has done...its a travesty, a great travesty" said Anne emphatically. "One minute she kills me, and has MY Gilbert marry someone else..."

"You wouldn't want me lonely, would you Anne-Girl?" interrupted Gilbert with a smirk as he pulled her towards him and nuzzled into her neck.

"...Then she has me ostracize Shirley, its not my fault the Great Creator didn't bring to life the parts of me where I was an excellent mother!, and of course, Shirley, I would embrace any life you have and any love you choose to live it with."

No one mentioned that she didn't look directly at Shirley and Carl as she said this, nor address Carl by name.

"I always liked how she portrayed me" said Susan appearing briefly with the tea things, then disappearing equally as fast as if her opinion may upset a delicate balance.

"Good ol' mother Susan" chuckled Shirley under his breath.

"Don't get too cheeky there bro" said Jem, "I hear rumours that McFishie-Creator has an idea for how you came into the world that that you may not like!"

"I've heard that rumour too, and don't like the implications about me at all, but we all know she has ideas, but rarely puts them to pen and ink," said Gilbert, defusing the situation, "we can all hope that she continues to ignore her literary gene and that reality won't eventuate."

"Good chance of that" interjected Anne, now looking her 40 plus years "she is a great procrastinator, where is your other wife, what's her name, Molly?"

"Mary," Gilbert responded, "as well you know. She's not here, two universes can't sit together. I can slip between them as I belong to both, but others can't"

"Do you love her more than me?" the question may as well have come from a child, so primal was the voice.

Gilbert tossed his head back and laughed, then he pulled Anne into his arms, "don't you get it Anne-Girl? You're the same. You both represent the best of my love. You're different people, different times, but you are both love."

"She let Mary's Joy live," continued Anne petulantly

"Yes," responded Gilbert " but she lost other babies, her life wasn't perfect. We have our family here"

"Almost," said Anne looking round at Jem and Faith, Shirley and Carl, even Nan and Di were there on the side, but Joy had never grown beyond the babe that only lived a day and Walter was forever in grave in France. "I don't see what Walter at least can't join us on these misty nights."

"You know it's not possible Mum" said Jem "That conflict was far too real for them, they write to try to make sense, but once someone is lost there, they are lost forever like Walter and..."

"...Jerry" Nan continued . The tears in her eyes matched his own as they all paused and thought of the cost of a conflict that occurred 100 years ago not only in their world but on a greater stage, one all the worlds were still reeling from.

"I could have done so much if I had the ability to magically heal in that universe" mused Gilbert. The silence continued for several moments.

"I wonder what Aunt Marilla thinks of her revised relationship with Grandpa" pondered Rilla, turning the conversation away from thoughts of war and death

Anne closed her eyes and in that moment left the Ingleside verandah and appeared on the Green Gables verandah, taking a moment to enjoy the breeze the hilly position allowed before opening her eyes.

"I wondered if I'd see you tonight" said Marilla, looking down at her needlework as if she'd been working on it before Anne arrived, the corners of her mouth giving the tell tale sign of the pleasure she had in seeing her, "And I've seen you've added a verandah to Green Gables?"

"McFishie-Creator insists that all these conversations happen on a verandah so I had to either wait for you to come to Ingleside or add a verandah to Green Gables, do you like it?"

"More than I thought I would" replied her adoptive mother "and the heightened position adds a lovely breeze."

"If you're going to have a verandah you may as well put it somewhere to catch the breeze" said Anne dismissively

Marilla smiled, Anne always was romantic, in all- well most - incarnations.

"Did you just come to visit, or is there something I can help you with?" she asked looking for where she had left off her needlework that had clearly not been attended in some time.

"The children wondered what you thought of Diva-Creator marrying you and John."

"I was just visiting that universe" said Marilla, giving up the pretense of needlework and putting it down with her left hand while her right hand reached up to touch her bodice as if to check that the buttons were all done up correctly "It is most...pleasant there..." Marilla stared off into the view as if pondering her life with John, "All the incarnations of my being married were very special, but I especially liked that John and I found each other again."

"There you are Mar" John wandered in from around the corner of the verandah. "Like what you've done with the place Anne, " he said admiring the verandah they were on with a smirk that could have belonged to his son, "Come back inside love" he said reaching out to Marilla with a look in his eye that Anne recognized from his son. Not wanting to witness anything remotely marital, and satisfied that Marilla was happy with married life Anne allowed herself to fade from Green Gables and reappear on the Ingleside verandah.

"I'm fairly sure she approved" said Anne, responding to Rilla's question

"I do too" said Gilbert, "Though I wasn't happy about her killing off Ma"

"Roseamund was a great loss" acknowledged Anne, "She was always such a good mother" The sign that followed indicated that Anne was still not impressed with the sort of mother she herself had been created to become.

"Roseamund?" said Gilbert "Ma's name wasn't Roseamund!

"It could have been" said Anne raising up to her queenly stance, "The Great Creator never gave her one and I think Rosamund is a lovely romantic name."

Gilbert shook his head "I'm certain Ma's name was plain and sensible, why didn't you ask Dad when you were there?"

"He was being incorrigible Gilbert," Anne responded, "he was practically kissing Marilla in front of me."

"Nothing wrong with a bit of kissing" murmured Shirley , grabbing Carl and kissing him once more.

"Do you two mind?" asked Anne clearly peeved

"You said you'd be okay with it" replied Shirley innocently, "perhaps Sky-Creator was right after all!" he teased

The moon, by now had risen, and the mist was starting to clear. Rilla held her hand up to watch as it increasingly became transparent. "The time betwixt the day and the dark on all hallows eve is fading." she said sadly, "I don't suppose we will be able to talk like this again until next year, I wonder how much will change in the next year. Maybe I'll have this baby," she looked down and patted her stomach as she spoke.

"I might be married" smiled Una, a dreamy expression on her face.

"I hope I come back from what is being created for me in England" mused Shirley

"You better", said Carl defiantly, "She won't kill you, she can't, she's brought us together, she won't tear us apart again" His voice wavered revealing that he wasn't as confident as his words, he knew She had no qualms about maiming or killing characters. He held tightly to Shirley's hand as if to hold him to this world for all time.

"Maybe I'll had another wife!" teased Gilbert, at Anne's look of horror and frustration his chuckle turned to a look of tenderness as he gently stroked her cheek, leaning in to kiss her deeply, as they faded into the mist waiting for the Creators to bring them to life once more.

Down by the shore the mist held a little longer. A tall girl looked up at the shadowy movements on the Ingleside verandah and sighed, part of this story, but not, Joy was only ever able to watch from the sidelines, She turned and wandered back to where Captain Jim was waiting for her "We're always part of them" he said, "even though we can't interact".

Joy smiled "I'm glad you're here with me, it would be terribly lonely otherwise."

"I couldn't think of a better first mate", he responded together they walked across the sandbar and faded into the mist below.

 _If this story doesn't make a lot of sense, you're not reading widely enough on this site! I've referenced some amazing work. Kslchen has not only developed Rilla beautifully but has written an historically accurate appraisal of WWI in 'Through the Dark Clouds Shining', you'd never guess that English isn't her first language! Elizasky has the ability to challenge preconceptions I didn't know I had and to shake up the world as I know it, only to put it back together in a way that I find myself loving more. 'In a Forest Dark' and 'Glen Notes' and it's sequel 'The Happiness We Must Win' have become such a part of me that I now thinking of them a canon in their own right. Oz Diva has showed us that the real heroine of the AOGG world is Marilla and her work develops this character superbly 'Forever and a Day', 'No Only but Also', 'Marilla's Diary' are just a few where we learn to love Marilla for her own journey. Excel Aunt has created a wonderful world where Gilbert has the ability to magically heal in 'Being a Blythe'. And there are more that I wanted to reference in this story it would have made it too unwieldy. The word 'betwixt' is in homage to MrsVonTrapp's 'Betwixt the Stars', and there are lots of other writers that inspire and amaze me with the wonderful worlds they create I know if I list them I'll miss out someone wonderful so look at the authors I've favourited and read their work._

 _Oh, and The Great Creator is Lucy Maud Montgomery, obviously, to who I'm eternally grateful for creating such wonderful, adaptable, believable characters._


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